Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Testimony-Abroad/Alfred_Six-01
Last-Modified: 1999/06/14

ALFRED SIX
7 May 1961

The Competent Court of Justice for Kressbronn/Bodensee

Re: Request for Legal Assistance

The main hearing in the criminal proceedings against the
Accused Adolf Eichmann is at present taking place in this
Court.

In the context of this main hearing, I request you to extend
legal assistance to this Court by the examination on oath of
the following witness:

Professor Dr. Alfred Six, Kressbronn/Bodensee, Weinbergstr.
14.

The witness is to be examined as to the following
allegations of the Accused:

     (1) that the Accused, Adolf Eichmann, as a Section Head
     in a Department of the Head Office for Reich Security
     under the National Socialist government in Germany, had
     no independent decision-making powers relative to the
     basic measures taken against the Jews;
     
     (2) that, as a Section Head, the Accused did not have a
     special position and special authority in the Head
     Office for Reich Security, and was more prominent than
     other Section Heads only because of the significance of
     the measures adopted;
     
     (3)that the Accused did not because of his personal
     disposition carry out the persecution and extermination
     of the Jewish People to a degree which went beyond the
     limits of the orders he received;
     
     (4) that the Accused on his own authority was unable to
     approve exceptions to the general orders of the Reich
     Chancellor, the Reichsfuerer_SS, the Chief of the Head
     Office for Reich Security, or his immediate superiors.

To complete the testimony of the witness, I would request
that the witness also be asked the following questions which
were drawn up by Counsel for the Accused:

     (1) Were you the Chief of Department II of the Head
     Office for Reich Security?
     
     (2) Was the Accused subordinate to you, first as a
     Specialist Officer and later as a Section Head?
     
     (3) Was a Section Head in the Head Office for Reich
     Security able at his own discretion to grant exceptions
     to orders from his superiors?
     
     (4) In negotiations with Section Heads from other
     central bodies, was a Section Head in the Head Office
     for Reich Security able to act freely, or was he bound
     by strict instructions?
     
     (5) During the period of your collaboration with the
     Accused, did he ever exceed the framework of the
     instructions he received?
     
     (6) Did the Accused ever act contrary to an order
     given?
     
     (7) Did the Accused, for reasons of personal
     conviction, have an anti-Jewish attitude?
     
     (8) Did the Accused make anti-Jewish statements or
     proposals which were directed towards the extermination
     of the Jewish People?

I would also request that the witness be asked the following
additional questions which were drawn up by the Attorney
General:

     (1) From when until when was the Accused directly
     subordinate to you?
     
     (2) Was the Accused your subordinate in the Head Office
     for Reich Security?
     
     (3) What were the guidelines by which the staff of the
     Security Service Head Office was accepted for
     employment?
     
     (4) Was the staff of the Security Service Head Office
     required to have a minimum level of knowledge of
     National Socialist ideology and to approve of it?
     
     (5) Could a non-anti-Semite be a member of the Jewish
     Affairs Section of the Security Service Head Office?


     (6) Did you receive reports from the Accused about his
     activities and did you read them _ (a) when he was your
     subordinate, (b) when he was no longer your
     subordinate?
     
     (7) Who recommended the promotion of the Accused to
     officer rank?
     
     (8) Why did you recommend his promotion?
     
     (9) Did you read the Accused's report on his journey to
     Palestine?
     
     (10) Was this report in keeping with National Socialist
     ideology?
     
     (11) In the Head Office for Reich Security, did Section
     Heads receive assignments which did not conform to the
     law?
     
     (12) What do you know about special assignments given
     by Heydrich to Eichmann?
     
     (13) When were you appointed commander of the Moscow
     Advance Commando?
     
     (14) What was the commando's assignment?
     
     (15) Did you deal with tracking down Soviet Commissars
     in prisoner-of-war camps?
     
     (16) Who gave you your orders about this?
     
     (17) Were you present when the orders were issued in
     Pretzsch and Berlin?  If so, describe what took place
     at this consultation.
     
     (18) Did you know SS Gruppenfuehrer Arthur Nebe?
     
     (19) Were you in Minsk in 1941?
     
     (20) If so _ (a) did you see German Jews who had been
     deported there? (b) did you see executions in Minsk?
     
     (21) What were your duties in the Foreign Ministry?
     
     (22) What was your rank in the Foreign Ministry?
     
     (23) When did you first hear of the Final Solution?
     
     (24) Were you ever sentenced for your National
     Socialist activities, and if so, what was your
     punishment?
     
     (25) Were you familiar with the activities of the
     individual Departments of the Head Office for Reich
     Security?
     
     (26) In the Head Office for Reich Security was it usual
     procedure for a Section Head to bypass the Group Leader
     and go directly to the Department Chief or the Chief of
     the Security Police and the Security Service?
     
     (27) Do you know of cases, apart from that of Eichmann,
     where the Section Head had a higher rank than the Group
     Leader?
     
     (28) Do you know of other Section Heads, other than the
     Accused, who received orders directly from the Chief of
     the Security Police?
     
     (29) Were there Sections Heads apart from the Head of
     Section IVB4 whose offices were situated outside the
     Head Office for Reich Security?
     
     (30) Was there any Section other than IVB4 which was
     housed in a four-storey building?
     
     (31) Are you aware that Eichmann frequently went in
     person to see the Reichsfuehrer_SS and the Chief of the
     Security Police, and was that usual procedure for
     Section Heads of his rank?
     
     (32) Did you take part in the meeting of Advisers on
     Jewish Affairs in Krumhuebel on 3/4 April 1944?
     
     (33) What did you report on at that meeting?
     
     (34) What were the Security Police duties which you
     were  slated to carry out in Great Britain, it were to
     be conquered by the Reich?

I request that you summon to the examination of the witness
the representative of the Attorney General of the State of
Israel, c/o H.E. Ambassador Dr. F.E. Shinnar, Israel
Mission, Cologne, as well as Counsel for the Accused,
Advocate Dr. R. Servatius, Hohenzollernring 14, Cologne, and
to afford them, on their part, the opportunity to put any
questions to the witness which might arise from his answers.

There is no objection on the part of this Court to the
aforementioned representatives of the parties obtaining
copies of the record of the examination.

Please forward the original of the record of the examination
to this Court.

(-) Moshe Landau, President of the Trial Court

I ARs 180/61

The Court of First Instance, Tettnang

Transacted on 24 May 1961

Present: Assistant Judge Eisenbraun as Judge

Court Official Ms. Freese as Recording Clerk

In the criminal proceedings against Adolf Eichmann

the following appeared when the matter was called:

Witness: Prosessor Dr. Six with Advocate Dr.
Bungartz,Cologne, Mr. Erwin S. Shimron representing the
Prosecution, who presented his power of attorney.

The representative of the Prosecution raised no objections
to the presence of Advocate Bungartz.

The witness was acquainted with the subject matter of the
examination and instructed as to the significance of the
testimony and the obligation to make a truthful statement,
as well as about the possibility of having to take an oath
and the penalties for giving deliberate or negligent false
sworn evidence.  Moreover, he was informed that he could
refuse to provide information on questions by answering
which he could lay himself open to the risk of criminal
proceedings.

Whereupon the witness was examined as follows:

Personal details: Alfred Franz Six, 51 years old, married,
advertising consultant, residing in Kressbronn,
Weinbergstrasse 14, not related and not connected by
marriage to the Accused.  I have not been deprived of the
ability to take an oath.

Advocate Wechtenbruch appears for the Defence.

On the matter in question:

From mid-1937 until the outbreak of war in 1939 I was
provisional head of the Deviant Ideologies Department in the
Security Service Head Office.  In addition, I was also head
of the Aspects of Life (Lebensgebiete) and Press
Departments.  Until now I believed that Eichmann was
subordinate to me in the Deviant Ideologies Department from
mid-1937 until the outbreak of war in 1939.  Having been
shown exhibits Nos. 1169 and 1513, I consider it correct
that Eichmann was transferred to Vienna in 1938, and that
after this transfer he was no longer my subordinate.
Eichmann was a Specialist Officer in the Deviant Ideologies
Department.  Without anything to refresh my memory, I am
unable to say from when until when Eichmann was in the Head
Office for Reich Security.  However, I do know that he
worked there and that he was head of the Jewish Affairs
Department or Jewish Affairs Section.  I myself no longer
remember since when Eichmann was again in Berlin.

Normally a Section Head in the Head Office for Reich
Security did not have any special powers.  Normally the
department was represented externally by the Department
Chief and not by the Section Heads.  It was not customary
for Section Heads to sign, particularly in correspondence
with other offices, authorities and ministries.  The
Department Chief would sign in such instances, with the
addition of "i.V." _ (in Vertretung _ on behalf of).  In
correspondence within the department, the Section Head could
sign, with the addition "i.A." (im Auftrag _ by order of).
Virtually from 1939 onwards, there were also Group Leaders
to whom certain powers of the Department Chief were
transferred, if they were appointed his representatives on a
temporary or permanent basis.  These Group Leaders were
responsible for the individual Section Heads in their group.
Normally the Section Head employed a secretary, and
sometimes, if he had a great deal of work involving card
files, a Specialist Officer (Sachbearbeiter).

Eichmann's Section occupied a special position.  More people
were employed in this Section than in the other Sections,
but from my own memory I am unable to say today how many
people were employed there.  I do not remember having ever
been in the offices of Eichmann's Section.  There was
considerably more work to be done in this Section than in
the other Sections.  It was also a known fact that there
were far more official journeys made in this Section than in
the other Sections.

If Eichmann was able to sign correspondence with outside
bodies, particularly ministries, on his own, without any
counter-signature (something which I am not aware of
according to my own recollection), then this was definitely
an extension of his powers as a Section Head.  Even if
correspondence with a ministry about a particular matter
continued for an extended period, communications were never
sent by one Section Head to another Section Head; it was
always a communication from the Head Office for Reich
Security to the ministry or the minister, and vice versa.

I do not know from my own recollection whether Eichmann
conducted negotiations abroad, and if so with whom.  In
order to be able to conduct negotiations abroad with
representatives of a foreign state, it was first necessary
to obtain the approval of the minister responsible, and the
German envoy in the state concerned had to be present.  From
my own knowledge I am unable to say whether Eichmann had
wider or less wide powers than other Section Heads.

Asked whether, and if so what, the witness knows about the
timing, the extent and the nature of Jewish persecution, and
more particularly about the so-called Final Solution:

The so-called Final Solution of the Jewish Question was
based on a decision by Hitler which was announced to a
certain circle at the Wannsee Conference in 1942, and then
turned into a plan of action by this circle.  I know of this
from the documents which were shown to me by the prosecution
at the Second Nuremberg Trial.  I was not present at the
Wannsee Conference; this was a secret conference.  I was
also not informed officially of the result of the
conference.

During 1943, I did receive reports at the Foreign Ministry
from the foreign press for my information, about
concentration camps, gassings and other measures against the
Jews.  These reports were so concrete that from 1943 on I no
longer had any doubts that persecution measures were being
carried out against the Jews.  From the end of 1943 onwards,
most of the highest-level ministerial civil servants must
also have been aware of such press reports. What I thus
heard about the methods of persecution of the Jews was
enough for me.  It was known that Eichmann himself dealt
with concentrating the Jews, and it was clear to me that
Eichmann was the person who could have given me information
about the details of the persecution of the Jews, had I
wanted to know anything about it.  I am not aware to this
day of the various tasks and powers which Eichmann had in
the persecution measures.  I do not know how far his own
decision-making power extended, and I am also not familiar
with the techniques for implementing the particular
persecution measures. I cannot say from my own memory who
was Eichmann's direct superior for these measures, apart
from Department Chief Mueller.

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